On May 7th Keane released their fifth album Strangeland, featuring the single “Silenced by the Night.”

The band, who have often been likened to fellow UK band Coldplay, said in an interview with NME that they’ve always considered themselves less of a mainstream band and more of an “alternative band.”

“We’ve had our ups and downs in terms of people’s perceptions of us, we’ve never been a band whoever gone with style or fashion,” said Chaplin. “We’ve made records instinctively, not to keep up with anything.”

“We’ve always felt like an alternative band, it’s part of who we are, even as people we felt a bit like that,” explained Chaplin. “Growing up, we felt different and I think our career has borne that out, especially given the current musical climate.”

Despite feeling they don’t fit in, Keane’s latest effort debuted at #1 in the U.K. this week and #17 in the U.S.. Chaplin posted a thank you to their fans on the band’s website, saying, “Eight years ago we set out on a pretty extraordinary adventure, happy in the knowledge that just releasing a record was enough for us as a struggling band! It’s a fairly surreal but lovely feeling to find that further on down the road we’ve now reached five out of five number one albums.”

Keane talked about where their native lands in an interview with KROQ/Los Angeles. Chaplin stating that the band tended to sing about “things they know about” like nature, rivers, and towns, such as the small one Keane came from.

“The other thing that’s in a lot of the songs is the world town,” he elaborated. “[At a recent gig], I was standing onstage and I got about halfway through the gig and I thought, ‘I must have sung the word town at least fifteen times already.'”